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Dooryard 309 (Perry)

309 is perry from the 2009 harvest. Perry is to pears as cider is to apples, and as wine is to grapes. Unfortunately (like cider), perry is rarely made of the right sort of pears. Meanwhile (like most good cider apples), most good perry pears are horrid to eat. We grafted a few trees in 1994 to promising perry varieties, and then slightly forgot about them. In 2009, we had enough fruit from those patient trees to make a barrel (yes, one barrel) of perry, and here it is. The 309 perry is made from Butt, Moorcroft, Hellens Early, Barnet, Brandy, Red Pear, and Barland. On the advice of this delicious barrel, we’re planting hundreds of pear trees (right now, and next year).
We’ll have more perry in a decade or so.
Meanwhile, we had none in 2010, but hope for another barrel (if the bees will get to work) in 2011. Our little tasting crew loved the soft acid and round bitter of this stuff, and its (slightly weird) combination of melon, apricot, tobacco, sweet stewed pear, and butter on fresh bread. But those descriptions are our job, so that we can talk to each other with some sense about what we’re smelling and tasting. We hope you don’t bother with that, and just enjoy a drop of this. We’ve bottled a little of the barrel for our friends, and put the rest into kegs for the Growlies.
If you want some of this, come very soon.
In bottles at the orchard onlyIn kegs at the orchard only (all drunk now)